Multipurpose warm chamber from the waste heat of domestic refrigerator

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to multipurpose warming apparatus utilizing the waste heat of a domestic refrigerator. The multipurpose warming apparatus is constructed as an additional part of the refrigerator and as an additional facility and heated using the waste heat generated by the refrigerator has several household uses like food warming, domestic fermentation purposes like curd making, fermentation for Indian dishes like Idli, Dosa etc., fermentation to grow yeast and to make western food like bread, pizza, burger etc. The apparatus comprises a warm chamber ( 1 ) housing the compressor ( 2 ) of the domestic refrigerator ( 3 ) and provided with the heat exchanger coil outside the refrigerator ( 4 ) as the heating element ( 4 ) of the warm chamber ( 1 ). The heat exchanger coil ( 4 ) forms the heating element of this chamber. The top, left and bottom heating elements are the heat exchange coils ( 4 ) of the refrigerator and the compressor ( 2 ) itself forms/acts as the right side-heating element. The maximum temperature of the chamber can be as high as 50° C., and the average temperature will be around 40° C., which is more than sufficient for most of the domestic food warming kind of applications.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to multipurpose warming apparatus utilizing the waste heat of a domestic refrigerator. More particularly it relates to a chamber, which is heated using the waste heat generated by domestic refrigerator.

The multipurpose warming apparatus is constructed as an additional part of the refrigerator and as an additional facility and heated using the waste heat generated by the refrigerator has several household uses like food warming, domestic fermentation purposes like curd making, fermentation for Indian dishes like Idli, Dosa etc., fermentation to grow yeast and to make western food like bread, pizza, burger etc.

BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART REFERENCES

Refrigerator is a common household item used for preserving food. It works on the simple physics principle “the evaporation causes cooling”. In fact, the refrigerator doesn't actually cool things it removes heat from them. The important parts of a refrigerator are: 1) the compressor, 2) the heat exchange coil inside the refrigerator, 3) the heat exchange coil outside the refrigerator, 4) the refrigerant and 5) the expansion valve. The refrigerant is a liquid such as Freon, Ammonia or Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) that will vaporize at low temperature. The refrigerant in the heat exchange coil, inside the refrigerator absorbs heat, which causes it to vaporize. The compressor compresses these vapors. This raises the pressure and temperature of the refrigerant. The heat exchange coil outside the refrigerator allow refrigerant to dissipate the heat of pressurization. As it cools, the refrigerant condenses back into liquid and flows through the expansion valve. The liquid refrigerant is allowed to move from a high-pressure zone to low pressure zone, so it expands and evaporates. In evaporation it absorbs heat from the heat exchange coil inside the refrigerator making it cold. The process basically removes heat from one place that is inside the refrigerator and dissipates it to another place that is outside the refrigerator. The place from where the heat is removed becomes cold and such place known as refrigerator is used for food preserving. The place where the heat is dissipated is however not used by the refrigerator. The heat dissipated by the refrigerated is the waste heat of the refrigerator. A refrigerator is a heat engine in which work is done on a refrigerant substance in order to collect energy from a cold region and exhaust it in a higher temperature.

The compressor of the refrigerator works round the clock, round the year with intermediate stoppage when the temperature inside the refrigerator is below the set point. The compressor uses electrical energy, which is converted to mechanical energy to compress the refrigerant. Since all the electrical energy cannot be converted to mechanical energy due to limited conversion efficiency, some energy will be converted to heat energy. This is also the waste heat generated by the refrigerator.

There are many attempts to make use of the waste heat generated by the refrigerator. The waste heat generated by the refrigerator is used for domestic water heating and also for dewfall prevention on the contact portion of the refrigerator.

Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,471 Feb. 29, 2000, wherein the waste heat generated by the refrigerator is recovered and used to heat the water. The drawbacks are the facility is only useful for heating water and not useful as a food warmer or for fermentation purpose. Moreover, the waste heat generated by the refrigerator is not sufficient for heating, which requires much more energy.

Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,706 Nov. 2, 1982, wherein the waste heat generated by the refrigerator is used for water heating. The drawbacks are the facility is useful for heating water and not useful for food warming or fermentation. Moreover the waste heat generated by the refrigerator is not sufficient to heat the water, which requires much more energy.

Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 6,666,043 Dec. 23, 2003, wherein the waste heat from the compressor is used for dewfall preventing on the contact portion of the refrigerator case and door. It is useful for prevention of dew on the case and doors of the refrigerator. The drawbacks are the waste heat generated by the refrigerator is not utilized for domestic appliances like food warming, fermentation etc.

There are no reports or patents, which use waste heat generated by refrigerator for the construction of a multipurpose warm chamber for domestic use. The waste heat generated by the refrigerator is just sufficient for the construction of a warm chamber for domestic appliances like curd making, food warming and other such uses.

OBJECTES OF THE INVENTION

The main object of the present invention is to provide a multipurpose warming apparatus utilizing the waste heat generated by the domestic refrigerator, which obviates the drawbacks as, detailed in the prior art.

Another object of the present invention is to provide additional facility in the domestic refrigerator in the form of warm chamber, which has many domestic uses.

Yet another object of the present invention is to make use of the waste heat generated by the domestic refrigerator.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWING

FIG. 1: The representation of the multipurpose warming apparatus.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the drawing accompanying the specification, FIG. 1 describes the refrigerator with multipurpose warm chamber from the waste heat of the domestic refrigerator.

Accordingly the present invention provides a multipurpose warming apparatus utilizing the waste heat of domestic refrigerator (3), which comprises a warm chamber (1) housing the compressor (2) of the domestic refrigerator (3) and provided with the heat exchanger coil outside the refrigerator (4) as the heating element (4) of the warm chamber (1).

In an embodiment of the present invention, a warm chamber (1) is constructed under the domestic refrigerator (3) close to compressor (2) to make use of the waste heat generated by the compressor (2) for heating the warm chamber (1).

In another embodiment of the present invention, the heating element (4) of the warm chamber (1) is the heat transfer coil (4) outside the refrigerator.

In a typical commercial domestic refrigerator, the heat exchange coil (5) inside the refrigerator forms the freezer (6) of the refrigerator (3). The heat exchange coil (4) outside the refrigerator that radiates heat is placed on the backside. In some of the latest models the heat exchange coils are embedded in the walls of the refrigerator.

The multipurpose warm chamber (1) is constructed at the bottom of the refrigerator (3) as shown in FIG. 1. The heat exchanger coil (4) forms the heating element of this chamber. The top, left and bottom heating elements are the heat exchange coils (4) of the refrigerator and the compressor (2) itself forms/acts as the right side-heating element. The maximum temperature of the chamber can be as high as 50° C., and the average temperature will be around 40° C., which is more than sufficient for most of the domestic food warming kind of applications. Heating water requires much more energy than keeping food warm or making the curd. The amount of waste heat dissipated by the refrigerator may not be really useful for heating water as claimed in some patents; it may be useful for keeping the water warm. The waste heat generated will be ideal for keeping the food warm and for curd making and other similar domestic applications.

The main advantages of the present invention are:

-   1) It provides a multipurpose warm chamber as an additional facility     of a domestic refrigerator. -   2) The warm chamber is useful for food warming that is for keeping     the cooked food warm for sufficiently long duration before     consumption as well as warming the food removed from the     refrigerator before consumption. -   3) The warm chamber is also useful for curd making, fermentation for     making Indian dishes like Idli, Dosa etc., growing yeast and making     western food items like bread, pizza, burger etc. -   4) It makes use of the waste heat generated by the domestic     refrigerator and does not need any additional power supply 

1) A multipurpose warming apparatus comprising: a domestic refrigerator (3) consisting of a compressor (2), a heat exchanger coil (4) placed outside the refrigerator, a heat exchanger coil (5) placed inside the refrigerator and a freezer (6); and a warm chamber (1) housing the compressor and the heat exchanger coil (4), said heat exchanger coil (4) being the top, left and bottom heating elements of the warm chamber and the compressor being the right heating element of the warm chamber, said warm chamber being heated by the heat generated by the coil (4) and the compressor (2). 2) The multipurpose warming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the temperature of the warm chamber is in the range of 30° C. to 50° C. 3) The multipurpose warming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the average temperature of the warm chamber is 40° C. 4) A multipurpose warming apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to drawing accompanying this specification. 